Tuesday, 28 January 2014

I had one of my first games in the Berkshire League back in October 2013. This was a Center Counter - my opponent had probably never faced 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.b4 Qxb4 5.Rb1 Qa5 6.Rb5!? (Note: if Black holds on to the pawn in the endgame then he's probably won). Unfortunately for my opponent, he spent something like 15-20 minutes trying to decipher moves 5 and 6 which was simple scare tactics - a psychological ploy, nothing hidden and no more complicated than that! This is pretty much how the game continued ... I would play a move and my opponent would grace me by taking excessive chunks of valuable clock time (no doubt in this game his indecisiveness cost him).

Poor time-management is not uncommon, but it is one of those foibles that has to be stamped out to be in for a shout at club-level. Blitz is a useful exercise in training the brain to think quickly, especially in an endgame melee. This game boiled down to a simple tactic that allowed me to win a pinned Knight and take advantage of my opponent's poor time-keeping!

Sunday, 26 January 2014

My first game of the 2013-2014 season saw me up against someone with very little match experience, so not too much to write about here. I am recording the game because it was my first gift of the season in the Berkshire league and will be instructive for juniors!